I’m not trying to turn our church into being Pentecostal; I’m trying to turn our church into being biblical. This is in the Book . . . it’s in the Book!
[Excerpts from my sermon: Acts #8: Prayers That Change History, based on Acts 4:29-32, preached on February 26, 2017 at Coastline Bible Church, Ventura, CA. Thanks so much to my wife Cheri (cherylford.com) for typing this.]
“Stretch out your hand to heal and to perform miraculous signs and wonders.” (v 30a) The early church, under persecution, asked for boldness plus God’s Spirit to break through into this world. They preached Christ, the Gospel, and they asked for healing power to accompany the preaching of the Word. A lot of what happens in the Book of Acts, for example, in Acts chaper 9 where Peter traveled through the country (v 32), he went to visit the saints in Lydda. There he found a man named Aeneas, a paralytic who had been bedridden for 8 years. “Aeneas”, Peter said, “Jesus Christ heals you. Get up and take care of your mat.” Immediately Aeneas got up. “All those who lived in Lydda and Sharon saw him and turned to the Lord.”
The same thing happened in Joppa. A disciple named Tabitha (Dorcas). She was a great woman of God, always doing good and helping the poor. She became sick and died. Peter went and prayed, saying, “Tabitha, get up.” She opened her eyes, seeing Peter, she sat up, . . . Peter presented her alive… this became known all over Joppa and many believed in the Lord.
We see that happened through Paul the Apostle, through Philip the deacon, and all over the book of Acts and the NT. God has great power! In Acts 14:3, Paul and Barnabus preached boldly for the Lord who confirmed the message of His grace by enabling them to do miraculous signs and wonders.
Why is it today that so few of us Christians pray that prayer? What made us get to the place where in our prayers for preaching the gospel we don’t ask for that manifestation of God’s power, and glory, and healing, and deliverance? There are Christians who pray that way, but there are so many who don’t. It’s like in our minds we’ve thought the Gospel is reduced to propositional doctrinal statements: Christ died, He was buried, He rose from the dead, and He gave us the gift of the Holy Spirit. You need to receive Christ, be born again, your sins will be forgiven. That’s all true, isn’t it? But where is that hunger to see the manifestation of God’s power?
People say that now that we have the Bible, we don’t need that. Well, let me ask you, if having God’s Word in written form means we don’t need the power of the Holy Spirit to demonstrate God’s reality to people . . . Let me ask you why Jesus had that power. Because He was the Word of God incarnate, and every word He spoke was the Word of God. And He did signs and wonders. The authors of most of the NT were the Apostles and the Apostolic company (those who were with the Apostles). So they certainly preached the Word of God, because we have it recorded for us in the New Testament. If they relied on and prayed for the power of the Holy Spirit to be manifest in healings and signs and wonders, what makes us think that if they needed that, wanted that, and desired that, what makes us think that we don’t need that because we have the Word in written form? I don’t know about you, but that doesn’t make sense to me.
If we ever needed the power of the Holy Spirit in our world, it’s today. When witchcraft is spreading, and ISIS, and demonic -isms, and philosophies, and ideologies are manifest, and people are being stolen, killed, and destroyed by the enemy, and drug-addiction probably has affected every family. You know somebody, if you don’t have some relative of your own who has been broken, or addicted to drugs or alcohol. The thief has come to steal, kill, and destroy. We need the power, and the gifts, and the presence of the Holy Spirit to make an impact in our world today. Do we think we are more spiritual, or that our Gospel is somehow more powerful than the Gospel that Peter preached, and Paul preached, and Jesus preached and lived?
Has something changed? Did the Holy Spirit decide to go into retirement? Why the teaching preparation of John the Baptist and the OT prophets concerning the Holy Spirit’s coming? Jesus said of the Holy Spirit’s coming, “It’s good for you that I’m going away. Because when I leave, the Holy Spirit will come. He will be with all of you.” Jesus could only be at one place at one time; the Holy Spirit could be in all of us everywhere. Why all the preparation, if He is just going to retire in terms of the powerful manifestations of healings and miracles? Jesus said, “as to your faith, let it be done for you.” Do we want an anemic Gospel that doesn’t have the accompanying power of God? — “You have not because you ask not,” James said. Let’s ask God to awaken in us the desire to see manifestations of His Kingdom and power and glory come from heaven to earth.
When we preach the Word of God, let’s pray for healings. Let’s pray for people to be set free and made whole, and marriages to be mended, and salvations to lost people. Let’s pray as they prayed: “Lord, stretch forth Your hand as we preach Your Word boldly. Let there be healings and signs and wonders in the Holy Name of Jesus.” You know, I’m not trying to turn our church into being Pentecostal; I’m trying to turn our church into being biblical. This is in the Book . . . it’s in the Book. It’s time to be biblical in the full sense of the word.
Summarizing: Their prayers were wholehearted; they were bold, united, God-honoring, Christ-centered, Spirit-filled, Kingdom-focused — and the results changed history!
Verse 31: “The place was shaken, and they were filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke God’s Word boldly. And God’s power was demonstrated.“ Acts 5:12 tells us that God’s power was all over the place. Revival and spiritual awakening! The world has been hugely impacted from a small band of people hardly known. And we are part of an enormous family of God throughout the world because those early people of God prayed for boldness. We’re the recipients of the Gospel through them.
So what can we learn and apply to our lives? We can ask, “Where do I need to grow in my prayer life?” I need to stand up against my fears, and pray for boldness. I need to step out in faith and pray big bold prayers. I know God is pleased with that….
(NOTE: The audio recording of this entire message, and the entire current-to-date series on the Book of Acts, can be heard and/or down-loaded from the Coastline website: coastlinebible.org.)